The Dangers of Protectionism
The editors at the San Diego Union-Tribune issued a stark warning this morning about the dangers of protectionism:
So what if protectionism helped keep Europe stagnant for generations; so what if there is massive evidence that protecting jobs quickly becomes a drag on job growth; so what if U.S. trade policy has helped make us a much richer nation than ever. Democrats see votes to be won by lying about trade, and they're not going to let the facts get in their way.
[...] What's particularly perverse about America's lurch toward economic know-nothingism is that it comes even as the rest of the world comes around to the wisdom of the free-market U.S. approach. After watching the United States create 10 times as many private sector jobs in the 1980s and 1990s – 40 million vs. 4 million – Europe now has similar job-creation numbers, thanks to its moves away from statism. Yet Democrats push to embrace Europe's failed approach even as Europe abandons it. So much for rational policy-making.
